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The Amazon Kindle allows almost anyone to get true global distribution -- which, until recently, was the major barrier between "vanity publishing" and getting a "real" book deal.

When you upload a book manuscript you own the rights to within the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform, it becomes available on Amazon.com and in the wireless Kindle Store within about 24-48 hours.

That's absolutely insane.

Compare that to the 12 to 24 months you'd have to wait for your book to hit shelves after submitting the finished manuscript to your editor.

I predict that those with a niche following -- popular bloggers, YouTube personalities, etc -- will create successful Kindle-only book length works. The core following will download the book, and then spread word of it, turning such works into gradual bestsellers. And, of course, Amazon's own recommendation algorithm begins to kick in and provide a major boost to titles that show signs of promise within their specific categories.

I've personally paid for two Kindle books already that were the result of bloggers I follow.

And this endeavor will be massively profitable for the tech savvy writers who jump on the bandwagon fairly early in the game: with a $9.99 Kindle download price, the author sees $6.98 in revenue (Kindle Direct Publishing has a 70/30 revenue split in most major territories, including the United States. Amazon takes 30%, you get 70%. They wire the money into your bank account about 60 days after the month in which a sale occurs. Pretty solid.)

This means an independent content creator or well-respected blogger need only sell 14,327 copies to earn slightly more than $100,000 in royalties. Or, in other words, he or she need only sell 39 copies per day to hit the $100K mark within a year.

Convincing 39 readers a day to check out your book on Kindle isn't very hard to do, especially if your blog has 10,000+ daily readers and a substantial added following in the form of a sporadic opt-in newsletter and RSS subscribers.

This is great news for everyone involved:

1. Content creators are going to start seeing much more money from their niche content.

2. This promotes a return to "long-form" writing. Good bloggers can monetize longer versions of their work, especially non-fiction bloggers who specialize in a certain area (finance, politics, relationships/dating, real estate investing, etc).

3. Far more timely and relevant content for readers. If you buy a book about social media or the political climate, for example, the case studies in the book won't be 12 to 24 months stale by the time you are able to purchase it.

4. An improved "farming system" for great talent to rise to the top. I like quite a few mainstream writers who succeeded the traditional way, but for every David Sedaris there is probably an equally hilarious blogger out there who doesn't have the benefit of New Yorker articles and NPR mentions to get his or her foot in the door. Kindle Direct Publishing levels the playing field somewhat and allows for faster talent discovery by the masses.